I just got back from 2 weeks in the BVIâ€™s. The first week, I captained a Lagoon 440 catamaran for a 7 person family. It was a LOT of work, so I only kited one day. The second week, my wife, my sister in law, Stang, and I hopped aboard a Jeanneau 43 DS for a week.

Day 1.
We left out of Nanny Cay on Tortola for an hour long sail to the Indians for some incredible snorkeling. Then we moored up near the Bight on Norman Island. This island was the inspiration for Treasure Island. Annie, my wife, came over on a service ferry later that evening and joined the crew for pumpkin soup, conch fritters, and 25 beers.

Day 2.
This was the longest day of all time. We left port at 0600 heading to Virgin Gorda, and made it to the Baths by 0800. The Baths is the most visited site in the BVIâ€™s. There are these 30â€™ boulders piled on top of each other all over the beach. You can climb through them on land and swim through them in the water.

It is impossible to describe how cool and unique they are. We spent about an hour there before we saw any other tourists. The last time I was there, there were 500 people crowded in from the cruise ships, so this was pretty special.

After the Baths, we set out for the Bitter End in North Sound Virgin Gorda. We moored and went directly to the kite shop/ kiter Scottâ€™s apartment. There is no sign, but when you walk by, you can see he has made curtains out of an old Slingy kite. Since Scott was out cold, Stang and I walked our gear to Eustacia Sound. What a beautiful kite spot! There is a big old reef flattening out a huge kite bay, but it is super shallow and fully reefed.

The wind was kind of light, but I gave it a shot. Basically, I did a down winder unintentionally to the north side of Prickley Pear Island, where I landed and derigged. 5 minutes later, Stang cruised over in the Zodiac and picked me up. We buzzed back to the launch, and Stang had a field day freeriding my 16m Havoc/Zero Gravity 137. That was the biggest set up we had, so I had to watch.

Day 3.
0845 we set sail for Anegada. This island is only about 14 miles away, but people talk about it like itâ€™s another country. Anegada is not volcanic and mountainous like the other islands, it is a limestone and coral reef island. In fact, it is home to the 3rd largest reef in the world, which makes entering the harbor considered dicey. It seemed straightforward to us though.

We got a mooring ball in no more than 8â€™ of water. This was cutting it close, as our boat had an 6â€™8â€

Rorke, sounds like a great trip. I bareboated the BVIs a few times before I got into kiting and they were fantastic vacations.

We are thinking about doing a bareboat kiting trip either to BVI or the Grenadines this fall. We have done it before where we get a boat the last week of hurricane season before the price increases. This makes it very affordable. Usually it works out to about $500 a person for a very nice 4 stateroom catamaran. We always make sure we get one with a decent dingy that has a big enough motor to get it on a plane. This is key for kiting support.

Yes sir. The BVI are a British territory. A passport is required for travel there. However, one bonus of the BVI is that the $$ is the currency of choice, so there is no need to go through the hassle of exchanging your dough.